Pratt says she definitely has stopped campaigning

In a statement Wednesday, Denise Pratt said she has, indeed, ended her bid to secure a second term as judge of the 311th Family District Court.

“Despite published reports to the contrary, I have, in fact, suspended my reelection efforts and I am not conducting a campaign,” Pratt wrote in a statement that included contact information for her lawyer, Terry Yates.

On Sunday, two days after announcing her immediate resignation and the suspension of her re-election bid, Pratt sent a text message to supporters suggesting she still may be campaigning.

The group text message, sent to 10 family lawyers, asked them to “call or txt” Dr. Steven Hotze, one of the “big three” slate endorsers, and encourage him to wait a few weeks before switching support to her challenger in a May 27 runoff, Alicia Franklin. In the message obtained by the Chronicle, Pratt wrote that she still was “heavily favored by the party and attys as seen by wed fundraiser.”

Hotze endorsed Pratt in the March 4 primary election where she secured the highest percentage of the vote in a five-way race, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

Officials on Tuesday, including Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart, who oversees elections, said Pratt still could be re-elected to a term that begins Jan. 1 , despite her resignation and lack of campaigning. The Baytown resident missed a March 12 deadline to withdraw her name from the runoff ballot. If she wins the runoff, Stanart said her name would have to appear on the November general election ballot unless she is deemed ineligible, an occurrence he described as unlikely.

Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones said a Pratt victory on May 27 is improbable given publicity of her latest bizarre action, but that she still “shouldn’t be counted out” because voters who show up to cast ballots in the runoff for higher races like lieutenant governor may not know who she is or vote for her simply because they recognize her name.

“There’s always the possibility that people will either randomly vote when they hit that race or will know the name Denise Pratt and won’t know the name Alicia Franklin and simply will vote for it based on that extremely limited amount of information,” he said. “I think many times we overestimate the amount of information that voters have.”

If Pratt wins, Jones said it would throw a wrench in the local Republican Party’s efforts to encourage voters to cast straight-ticket GOP ballots in the November election.

“I think, at this point, every Republican” on the ballot “all have the same goal and that is to make sure that Denise Pratt does not win on May 27 because she would just be a liability for the Republican ticket in the fall,” he said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, who must appoint a replacement for Pratt who will serve through the end of the year, confirmed Wednesday that the office has “received and accepted her resignation.”